We are providing a £30 food supplement voucher for children who receive income-based free school meals, families who receive income-assessed Early Years Support (2 to 4 year olds) and young people leaving their care setting (care leavers).
We will be issuing vouchers from week beginning 27 March. You will receive a letter automatically with details of how to access the food supplement voucher, so there is no need to apply for it yourself.
Go to the Edenred website and follow the instructions below to redeem your voucher:
- enter your eCode from the letter
- choose your supermarket
- enter the amount
- go to checkout and complete your order
- the voucher will arrive by email within 24 hours
- check your inbox for your voucher email and download your voucher
- if you cannot find the voucher email please check your junk/spam folder
Codes need to be activated within 3 months of the issue date (27 March) or they will be cancelled automatically. Once vouchers have been claimed on the Edenred website they will be valid for 12 months.
If you have difficulty accessing the Edenred website, please contact your school for help in the first instance. You can also contact the Edenred helpline on 0333 444 5932 or if you live in Sheffield, contact the Free School Meals team.
If you have a child attending a Sheffield school or maintained nursery, you may be entitled to free school meals if you receive any of these benefits:
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- Income Support
- income based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- income related Employment Support Allowance
- support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit as long as you have a yearly household income of less than £16,190 (as assessed by HM Revenue and Customs) and do not get Working Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
If you are over 18 and still attend school your free school meals will continue. If you are unsure about your eligibility please contact us.
Apply for free school meals
You can apply by:
- completing an online application
- asking the school to apply on your behalf
- contacting us
The online application can be used by parents, carers, schools or professionals. You can apply online for up to 5 children.
Schools applying on behalf of parents or carers for 6 or more children should use their Anycomms batch collection upload template.
Next steps after you've applied
If your claim is successful, the school will be notified that your child can have free school meals. Schools will ensure that this information is treated with the strictest confidence and handled sensitively.
Pupils protected from losing free school meals
The following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals:
- from 1 April 2018, all existing free school meals claimants will continue to receive free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This will apply even if their earnings rise above the new threshold during that time
- in addition, any child gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected against losing free school meals during the Universal Credit rollout period
- once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, any existing claimants that no longer meet the eligibility criteria at that point (because they are earning above the threshold or are no longer a recipient of Universal Credit) will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (ie primary or secondary)
Infant free school meals
If your child attends a state funded infant school and is in Key Stage 1 (reception, year 1 or year 2), they are entitled to ‘universal infant free school meals’ regardless of your income. You can contact your child’s school and tell them you would like to have ‘universal infant free school meals’.
Extra funding to support your child's education
If you apply for free school meals and you are successful:
- your child’s school gets up to £1345 additional funding (Pupil Premium)
- your child’s early years education provider gets up to £302 additional funding (Early Years Pupil Premium)
This funding is to support your child's education and can help to buy new equipment and resources.
Contact us if your circumstances change. For example, if you no longer receive benefits, move house or change school, as this may affect your right to claim.